I don’t remember where I was or what I was doing, but I glanced over at someone’s wrist a couple years ago and I saw a tattoo of a semicolon. As a writer, I have always loved the semicolon. It allowed for more dramatic pauses or showing incomplete thoughts in characters as they wrestled with what to do. But to permanently mark your body with a punctuation mark? That’s serious! I never saw that person again, and even if I had the chance, I wouldn’t have asked them about their form of expression on their body. So I did what any curious person does after they see something interesting: I googled it. And it was here that I learned about Project Semicolon . . . Read More

Stepping out of your comfort zone is not only about trying new things that scare you, but also equipping yourself with the tools to make new and exciting decisions. I am a big proponent of sharing knowledge to help others jump out of their fishbowls [when they are ready]. Are you interested in starting your own business? Overwhelmed with where to start? I conversed with Chris Maguire, owner of Tubby Robot, a recently opened ice cream parlor located in Philadelphia’s Manayunk section, and he gave us a nice overview of how that process looks.
… Wow, so you are opening up an ice cream parlor! what spawned that idea?
I’ve loved ice cream my entire life, and I started making my own shortly after receiving an ice cream maker as a wedding gift. Our first batch came out rather underwhelming – it was too icy, poorly flavored, and generally speaking – an utter abomination. Not being satisfied with failure, I stubbornly iterated for months until I was making something I was proud to share with others. Years later, I found myself living in a wonderful neighborhood (Manayunk) with a desire to open a brick and mortar business nearby. At that point, building an ice cream parlor was the only option that made sense. . . . Read More

Did I get your attention? Good. Look, we work, we might go to school, we pay our bills and any debts, and we try to save, but sometimes it’s just not enough. Maybe you want to supplement your income, but you have no time for a second (or third) job. Or maybe you have family members to take care of and can’t leave them for any more time. Maybe you like your current lifestyle, but could use some extra cash to go on a trip or save for retirement or to attend an exotic wedding. Whatever your reason, I think most people can agree, free money is definitely something we can get down with.

I sat down with a friend of mine to learn all about the world of COUPONING. She is a pro and I am really interested in how I can get started.

Part of stepping outside your comfort zone is realizing that you don’t know everything. In particular, love is such a dynamic and complicated science that we really can’t predict it. There are so many factors that affect the interaction of two people – factors such as childhood issues, daddy issues, distance, trust, personality, communication, availability, priorities, attractiveness, self-esteem, and faithfulness, to name a few. That doesn’t even take into account where you live and who is available to you, the activities you engage in, and the myriad of factors that influences who we meet and when. So, it’s nice to hear some experts, if anyone can be an expert in love. . . . Read More

Please go and see the film Hidden Figures. I saw it today, and, well, WOW. Such an inspirational film. If you are not familiar, Hidden Figures is the fact-based movie about three African-American woman – Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson – who directly worked on calculations at NASA in order to to get astronaut John Glen to be the first American to orbit the earth. What makes this story phenomenal is that all this is taking place in the 1960s in segregated Virginia. As you can imagine, the women face many subtle and not-so-subtle racism and prejudice because of their skin color. . . . Read More

Happy New Year!!!
Welcome to 2017. Now before you quote me on the title, let’s give it some context. It’s January 2nd and you may already be behind on a resolution you set out for yourself. Let’s see, the usual resolutions – lose weight, get places on time, be nicer, cook/eat better, read more, blah blah blah. It’s almost the same for everyone that makes resolutions, so for one, be original and think of specific goals that you want for yourself. But secondly, give yourself a break. And that is what I mean by cheat a little. . . . Read More

Ahh, the “joys” of cooking. Depending on your personality, you either love to cook, hate to cook, or cook just because you need to eat. I think the joy of providing a meal for others, increases the likeliness of wanting to cook, but when you are in a situation living by yourself, it might not be as fun. Whatever you cook, you are stuck eating it for 4 meals, unless you decided to make “just enough,” which is never as cost effective. Regardless of your motivation, we all have to eat. . . Read More

Jump Out Your Fishbowl is not a political blog, so I’m not going to discuss the presidential candidates here (check out personal blog for rants and raves), but I will discuss our civic duty and things you can do that might certainly be outside your comfort zone this election.

My main agenda in this post is to get YOU to vote (if you planned on skipping this election). I have very strong opinions about who should not be president, but I will save that for my personal blog. Politics and government classes were a long time away so I did some fact checking on Wikipedia (don’t judge) and other sites. Shoutout to my middle school history teachers (MSTM!!). I am of the mindset that if you don’t vote, don’t complain, but this is such an important election this year. I am constantly hearing people say that “my vote doesn’t matter” and that is simply not true. Here’s why:

Not selecting a candidate is not saying “I can’t stand either candidate,” it’s saying “I prefer both candidates about the same.” . . . Read More

Hiking – how hard could it be? It’s just walking . . . Famous last words. I recently got into hiking when I moved to a place where there were hills and trails and trees. If you are looking for something to do, this is a great full-body workout, and you get to be outside and enjoy the nice weather. There are several degrees of hiking, so you should start off slow with nicely paved trails and graduate to rugged uphill mountains.

But first things first – get a pair of good hiking shoes. Pictured are my Merrell hiking shoes, which I find to be super comfortable. I would suggest not getting your first pair online, but going into a sports/mountain store and trying them on. Some of the stores have a ramp where you can simulate climbing uphill. Read More . . .

We can’t talk about stretching outside your comfort zone without mentioning adaptability. Just as a person might bundle up when moving from California to Alaska, outside influences require you to make some internal changes. An easy example is generational gaps in the work force. Even though texting has become a perfectly acceptable way to communicate in this day and age, it is not always appropriate. If I text my coworker that is on board with communicating that way, that is great. If I text a coworker that is not a fan of texting, I’m silently demanding that they use my mode of communication. . . . Read More